First-year seminars (FYS) comprise one of 11 researched interventions in postsecondary education known as High-Impact Practices, but few rigorous studies report significantly high impacts. This study examined a FYS employing propensity score matching to link cases and controls in a quasi-experimental design. One semester later cumulative grade…

Starting university is challenging. Students require resilience to face the inevitable challenges of university life, yet many may not be equipped with the strategies they need. In this research, we explored changes in resilience following the delivery of a resilience building module within a core first-year university course. Psychology students…

Financial literacy skillsets may be lacking in the first-year college student population, which may contribute to lower first-year college student retention rates. Because financial literacy is a skillset that may need to be taught to college students, this study attempted to understand and explore the link between financial literacy levels and…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to discover, from the First-Year Experience student perspective, how the course might be improved to better meet their needs in the post-pandemic environment. The transitional experiences of first-year college students and best practices for the First-Year Experience course curriculum have…

Nearly half of all students in the United States are placed into at least one developmental course in college. Many of these students fail to complete developmental course sequences and persist to degree completion. First-Year Seminars are one of several high-impact practices associated with increased persistence, retention, and graduation rates…

Milner (2012) defines opportunity gaps as the uncontrollable factors such as race, language, or economic status that can impact students' success in schools. Rather than placing focus on students' achievement, examinations of opportunity gaps emphasize the systems and structures that may contribute to disparities in student outcomes. The…

This paper explores an inter-learning teaching method designed and utilized by the authors in the Winter 2021 term for first- and upper-year therapeutic recreation (TR) students in an online platform. This collaborative teaching method sought to make intentional space for upper-year students to take the lead on and facilitate seminars for…

We report the short- and longer-term impacts of offering a 1-credit introductory seminar to first-year chemical engineering students. Students who completed the seminar demonstrated a better awareness of the major, career opportunities, and academic success strategies than students who did not enroll in the seminar. A longer-term comparison showed…

The transition to college can be challenging for first-year students, impacting their academic performance and overall well-being. One strategy employed to ease the college transition is the first-year seminar, designed to introduce students to academic expectations, build social connections, develop self-management skills, and support students'…

This qualitative case study examined the efficacy of one university's academic interventions in support of conditionally admitted (CA) students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective was to gain insights into how academic interventions changed for CA students and how the students used academic interventions during COVID-19 at one four-year…

First-year seminar courses have become increasingly popular for colleges and universities as they are expected to help aid in the transition to college and help students persist to graduation (Culver & Bowman, 2020). Utilizing pre-existing data from the Office of Institutional Research Effectiveness and Planning (IREP), the…

Drawing from our experiences facilitating an FYE faculty development program, we highlight how we have practiced elements of trauma-informed pedagogy to work with first-year students and faculty. We discuss how both students and faculty can benefit from a more complex process of cultivating relationships through mindfulness. Practices of…

Retention and graduation rates are declining nationwide but are exceptionally low for Black men. Extant research substantiates that various influences contribute to a student's ability to persist to graduation. Apart from the positive impact of HBCUs on educational outcomes for Black students, empirical research highlights that enrollment, campus…

A first-year general education core course can act as a keystone connecting general education and specialized major courses, enhancing their value in the eyes of students and recognizing student goals for both career preparation and self-discovery. The core course introduces themes based on distinctive institutional mission and identity and also…

Winston-Salem State University incorporates critical thinking and oral communication into general education learning outcomes and assessment. To teach these critical skills, the authors used active learning techniques in a first-year seminar on animal behavior. Students performed simulation experiments and orally presented their findings. Their…